In this blog post I would like to explain

• Why sprints need to be closed
• How to close a sprint
• What happens after a sprint is closed

Why the sprints need locks(Closure)

Please note in this blog post I would use Sprint lock and sprint closure interchangeably as they mean the same in SAP Cloud ALM

As you plan your sprints , do you want to assign the work after the sprint has been fully planned  or after its started.

Do you want to allow additional work to be added in the sprint after the sprint has been completed and delivered. Obviously not.

That’s why you need capability to lock a sprint or in other words close it. Closure just means not open yet or not open as its past.

There are three situations when you would like to lock a sprint.

Keeping a sprint locked in pre-planning stage

Please understand that locking a sprint is relevant when  planning is happening. A Project lead or a scrum master pay want to plan the timeline and align with management but not allow addition of work in a sprint until the plan is final. So in a pre-planning state a sprint may be kept locked and later the sprint lock can be opened when a Sprint is ready to be planned

Locking a sprint after planning stage

A scrum master or  a Project lead may lock a sprint once the sprint has been planned so that the charter of the sprint is clear and there is no scope creep into the sprint definition

Locking a sprint after sprint closure

After a Sprint is completed then it should be locked for sure so that the analytics reports work properly.

How to lock a sprint

In the edit mode of a project , you can click on the lock icon to close a sprint

if you change your mind , you can just click on the lock icon to unlock a sprint

What happens when a sprint is locked

New work assignment is stopped to a locked sprint. That’s it. The reports and filters still continue to show locked sprint. So just ne careful when you try to assign a sprint to a Project task or user story , you will only see Active sprints, locked sprints will not be shown in the assignment screen but when you see the task list filters or analytics reports , all sprints will be shown.

If you forgot to update the sprint definition in terms of tasks assigned before you locked a sprint , then you can unlock it , update the content of a sprint and lock it again

Next steps

Stay tuned for more information. If you want to give feedback or have a question , feel free to drop a comment. Please bookmark these two links

• Master List for Blog posts in Project, Task and Requirement management 
• Expert Portal for SAP Cloud ALM

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